Another Sunday and the posting choice is difficult. I've been following the monks on march for democracy in Burma, was going to be a bit lazy and and post about a study that proves that women prefer pink. Actually, the prefer the red side of the color chart, thus everyone's favorite color, blue, becomes pink or lilac for women. The authors of the study think that this might be so because women gathered fruit, which is red when ripe. I can think of a more sanguine reason... In any case, I opened my LA Times e-mail alert and was jolted out of complacency by the Bush administration's utterly irresponsible caving in to pressure from the baby formula industry and weakening public health ad campaigns promoting breast feeding, which has many more life-long health benefits than does baby formula. Once riled, I figured it was time to post about Burma (currently called Myanmar by the military junta; while US news sources state these facts the other way around, i.e., Myanmar, formerly called or also known as…the French continue to call it Burma and the capitol city Rangoon, rather than the junta-redubbed Yangon). Protests have been going on since August over unannounced and unexplained hikes in gas and other prices and, as anyone who’s been following the news these past weeks knows, Buddhist monks have been leading massive demonstrations (10,000 monks, 20,000 total people in the biggest demonstration last week), even managing to stop and pray before the home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. But the junta finally cracked down violently, even killing a Japanese journalist and cutting cell phone and internet connections to stop information from getting to the outside world. The UN envoy was finally granted a visa and was able to meet with both Suu Kyi and junta leaders, but few have great hopes for the outcome. While things are clearly at a turning point, without the help of China (Burma’s biggest trading partner), the rest of the world seems powerless to get the junta to democratize (or at least end Suu Kyi’s house arrest) and China, while calling for restraint and peaceful settlement of the situation, will not join the international movement for sanctions or boycotts.

... 2007(today), multilinguals throughout the world mark International Translation Day. This year the International Federation of Translators has chosen to bring attention to a sad fact:

There are parts of the world where translators and interpreters literally risk death simply by doing their job. Some 261 translators and interpreters died in Iraq in 2006, and more in Afghanistan. Elsewhere, translators have been jailed for their work, and received death threats for daring to translate the works of authors such as Salman Rushdie. One was murdered.

This year's theme? "Don't Shoot the Messenger!"... 1997(10 years ago today), the Roman Catholic Church in France apologized "to the Jewish people ... for its silence in the face of French collaboration with the Holocaust." Bishops proclaimed a Declaration of Repentance that confessed to and asked forgiveness for the "mistake" of silence as the Vichy regime, which ruled in France after the Nazi conquest, imposed anti-Semitic laws and undertook "the deportation of tens of thousands of French Jews to Nazi death camps."... 1960, U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) was born in Helena, Arkansas.

Check out the recent ASIL Insight by Julia Qin on the June 2007 "'green' decision" in Brazil – Measures Affecting Imports of Retreaded Tyres.As Qin (left) explains, the European Communities had brought a challenge against a Brazilian law that bans importation of already-used-but-retreaded tires (right), based on the reasoning that the retreads have a shorter lifespan and so will find their way even sooner into waste heaps where they "create health and enivronmental hazards by providing breeding grounds for mosquite-borne diseases," and further "caus[e] tyre fires that are difficult to control." A panel of the World Trade Organization agreed, perhaps more so than Brazil wished: the panel "effectively directed" Brazil to extend the ban to imports of such tires from countries outside Europe; most notably, MERCOSUR neighbors that'd been permitted to sell the tires in Brazil.In Qin's view the Brazil - Tyres decision could "become a milestone in WTO jurisprudence on trade and the environment" -- if, that is, it survives review by the WTO's Appellate Body.

... 1960, pounding on the table with both fists, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev interrupted the speech of his British counterpart in praise of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, made during a session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Khrushchev demanded that Hammarskjold "be replaced by a three-man executive representing the western, Soviet and neutral camps." Though Khrushchev continued this attack through the next month, no action was taken. In a plane crash 1 year later Hammarskjöld died, en route to Congo peace talks; he was the posthumous recipient of the 1961 Nobel Peace Prize.... 2005, Algerians went to the polls to vote on amnesty; that is, on the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, a proposal of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika that they "forget the violence of a civil war that left more than 100,000 people dead and to offer amnesty to many of those responsible." In the end, 97% of voters approved the referendum; turnout was 80%.

"Brazil Delivers U.S. a Stunning World Cup Exit" read yesterday's NY Times headline; not so stunning if it had been talking about men's soccer, but a serious blow to the phenomenal U.S. women's soccer team, which had beaten Brazil in 21 of 22 prior matches. As a former soccer player and an avid fan of the sport, I'm always disappointed to see how little attention our powerhouse women's soccer team receives in the popular media. Why is it that a national team that had won 51 straight games prior the Brazil loss is, in the words of the soccer federation, "unheard of"? Some academics argue that American exceptionalism is responsible for the unpopularity of soccer as a spectator sport, arguing that the internationalist flavor of soccer contradicted the nativism and nationalism that shaped a uniquely American self image in the late 19th and early 20th century. Unlike the more popular American sports -- baseball, basketball, and football -- the soccer World Cup actually pits American teams against the rest of the world, including, this year, teams from countries as diverse as Argentina, Ghana, Korea, and Norway. While the exceptionalism argument provides a compelling historical explanation, why hasn't soccer taken off as an American spectator sport in the 21st century? The soccer moms are doing their part, chauffeuring girls and boys alike back and forth to soccer games from a tender age. Why hasn't this youthful enthusiasm translated into the soccer fever we see in the rest of the world? Perhaps the less novel but more frustrating question is why so little headway has been made in drumming up spectator support for a sport in which our women's team is truly outstanding. The excellence that Serena and Venus Williams display on the tennis court have engendered substantial enthusiasm from tennis fans, drawing in crowds eager for the sheer excitement of their joga bonito. Despite similar levels of virtuousity, other women's sports simply haven't been able to draw a serious fan base. While the successes of Title IX have empowered talented female athletes, the reality of gender-equal opportunity in sport is still a distant goal. Something to ponder next time you buy tickets for a sporting event . . . .

... 2005, Constance Baker Motley, Senior Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, died at age 84 of congestive heart failure. Daughter of emigrants from the West Indies, in 1944 she became the 1st African-American woman accepted at Columbia Law School, from which she was graduated in 1946. Soon after she began to work for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. During her 16 years of practice there she "was the only woman on the legal team in the historic legal challenge to school segregation in Brown v. Board of Education," and, as depicted at left, also served as "lead counsel for James Meredith in his successful battle to gain admission to University of Mississippi." Motley won 9 of the 10 cases she argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. Eventually she entered city and state politics in New York. In 1966, she became the 1st African-American woman federal district judge; 20 years later, the 1st woman Chief Judge in New York's Southern District.

... 1961, the United Arab Republic came to an end when the military staged a coup in Damascus. The UAR had been formed on Feb. 1, 1958, as a union of Syria and Egypt; the latter country kept the name for another 10 years, then became the Arab Republic of Egypt on Sept. 2, 1971.

What makes James E. Crip's Sleuthing The Alamo remarkable is the effectively clear and concise treatment of what could have been a dry-as-parchment tale. Archival detective work is not fast paced; yet Crisp's non-intrusive presence in the book moves the stories along and adds a degree of suspense to what is essentially academic enterprise.

Racism and abusive language is prevalent in the book. Crisp recovers the history of when 'brown became bad' in the story of the Alamo and sharply draws a line in the sand after the Texas Revolution. Dealing with a Sam Huston speech made at the beginning of the war, he pares away the generational layers of translation and editing to reveal Sam Huston as respectful and humane towards blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans. Racism, Crisp understands, came in with the new wave of immigration after the Texas Revolution. The steady influx of Southerners with slaves or with the desire to soon buy slaves caused a rise in Texas' disregard for Mexicans.Also, before and during the revolution, the inhabitants of Texas understood them selves to be Texicans and most closely aligned with the Mexican state of Coahuila, that contained the northern parts of both the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers. In the final chapter Crisp presents a story of art history and the depiction of Santa Ana's army. Using four famous turn of the 20th century paintings of the Alamo and Little Big Horn and the patron who commissioned them, Crisp reveals that an amateur historian to be at the center of the popular graphic representation of these battles.

The abusive language comes in the form email and letters to himself and other historians who have taken Davey Crockett's death from the ramparts of the Disney movie and placed it the Alamo's courtyard. By thoroughly re-constituting the original documents written by those in the Mexican army, he finds that it is very likely Crockett was captured alive but immediately executed with saber slashes along with five others. Crisp reviews the historiography of Crockett's death and how it reflects the climate of the times.

Crisp dwells upon the nature of the past, history, anthropology and the unique tasks of the storyteller, the historian and the anthropologist. In the book's chapter, The Silence of the Yellow Rose, Crisp succinctly dwells upon voices held within the documents that that were not captured in documents and in documents that are currently being recovered in estate auctions and unarchived collections of libraries.

Crisp's book is 200 pages, in a small format, and appears to be printed to fit snugly in a briefcase. CWL read this book on a toru bus, on the lawn of the Smithsonian and in the Menger Hotel's bar in San Antonio Texas, the exit of which faces the Alamo. The chapter are short and sharp; getting right to the point, Crisp's narrative style carries the elements of pursuit and suspense well. His book will satisfy upper level and graduate school students as well at the history reader who open to reading about how history is written and rewritten, discovered and rediscovered.

Searching international criminal law has gotten easier with the introduction of a new search engine (in beta format) using google technology to search defined ICL sites. The site was developed by Santa Clara University Law student Jeffrey Larson. Check it out: http://iclnexus.blogspot.com/. At the moment, it can search materials on the ICC, ICTY, ICTR, ICJ, and Yale University Avalon sites. More to come...

Faced with what is described as “public discontent” with Québec’s current multiculturalism policies, particularly as they provide accommodations for immigrant groups whose cultural and religious practices differ from that of the French Canadian Catholic majority in Quebec, Premier Jean Charest created a commission last February to address the issue. The commission’s approach to its charge has been deliberately provocative. In its consultation document, it has developed a series of “frank” and “direct” questions, “at the risk of occasionally arousing very strong responses” because it is convinced that “a wellspring of disagreements, discontent, dissatisfaction, or even frustration has built up” that must be aired. Accordingly, the public is asked to give its opinions on subjects ranging from the value (or lack thereof) of multiculturalism, Québec’s policy toward acceptance and integration of immigrants, “what kind of secularism” Québec should adopt, and so on. Answers may be submitted via formal briefs, on the commission’s website (in french & english), or in person at public hearings and forums. The expected furor is, of course, framed by the context of Québec’s unique position as a Francophone province within Canada and its corresponding and longstanding concern with protection of its French identity. Accordingly, whereas Canada has long had a federal policy of promoting multiculturalism, Québec’s policy is one instead of “cultural convergence.” The debate has also been spurred by the increasing ethnic and religious diversity of immigrants to Québec in recent years and the new challenge this diversity poses in the context of the long-recognized francophone-anglophone tension in the province. The commission began holding public meetings earlier this month & will continue through November. It will be interesting to see whether the commission succeeds in creating the frank dialogue it seeks, and what, if anything, comes of this vast public conversation.

Just in time for the hearing set for today before the Foreign Relations Committee of the U.S. Senate, the American Society of International Law's posted a trove of information on the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea. As we've posted, although the treaty enjoys widespread international support (155 states parties), efforts to secure U.S. ratification always have run aground. ASIL's databank indicates some division of opinion, notwithstanding 2 recent events have reinvigorated supporters: 1st, President George W. Bush's call for Senate approval; and 2d, Russia's deep-sea adventurism in the Arctic Ocean.Witnesses on the agenda for Thursday's kickoff hearing are Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, and Admiral Patrick M. Walsh, Vice Chief of Naval Operations. The Committee plans another hearing in October, "at which time proponents and opponents, as well as ocean industry representatives, will be invited to testify." (photo courtesy of the Navy of Australia, a state party since 1994)

... 1938, in what the New York Times called "an undoubted dress rehearsal" for a Europe already in the throes of Nazi conquests, the Council of the League of Nations agreed to sanction Japan on account of Japan's "refusal to settle her dispute with China," a province of which Japan had invaded and renamed Manchukuo, via Covenant mechanisms for pacific settlement. This 1st invocation of Article 16 of the League's Covenant proved unavailing; 5 years earlier, Japan had quit the League, and the League was a dead letter before the end of World War II. This cartoon by David Low -- depicting a Japanese officer receiving an obsequious welcome from League officials even as he tramples a woman meant to represent the League itself -- underscored international ineffectiveness.... 1966, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) was born in New York City.

The Texas War of Independence 1835-1836: From Outbreak to the Alamo to San Jacinto, Alan Huffines, 96 pages, Osprey Publishing, 96 pp., maps, illustrations, bibliography,index, $14.95.

Clear and concise, The Texas War of Independence 1835-1836 is a thorough introduction to the birth of the Texas Republic. Beginning with a full color map of Texas and Mexico in 1830 and a four page annotated chronology, Alan Huffines describes the Mexican revolutions and civil wars. The Texian and Mexican armies, with their leaders are described succinctly. Two chapters focus on the combat of the Texas Revolution. Importantly, Huffines sets the war in the context of the Jacksonian politics, the Seminole Wars, British and French commerical lust for Texas and California, the several attempts at annexation, and the Mexican-American War.

In particular, Huffines notes the jeopardy of Texans' slaveholding as the republic develops commercial ties with Great Britain which had outlawed both the slave trade and then slavery in its empire two years before the revolution. In addition, Huffines describes the several unique personalities of the times, include "The Babe of The Alamo" and Juan Almonte. The editors of Osprey Books have located an 1836 battlefield map of the Alamo that was prepared by a Mexican army topographer and the 1854 'Late Texas Republic' certificate that Elizabeth Crockett, widow of David Crockett, received with a check for $24 for services her spouse rendered during the revolution, as well as many other primary sources. The Texas War of Independence 1835-1836: From Outbreak to the Alamo to San Jacinto is useful for teachers and will be enjoyable for those who have a general interest in the Texas Revolution.

A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this week rejected a civil suit brought by the victim of a violation of Article 63 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, requiring that noncitizen arrestees be told they may call their consulate. Judge Pamela Rymer (right), joined by Judge Arthur L. Alarcón, wrote in Cornejo v. City of San Diegothat "the right to protect nationals belongs to States party to the Convention," and that "no private right is unambiguously conferred on individual detainees"; therefore, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a federal civil rights statute, offered no path to relief.In so ruling, the majority parted company not only with the dissenter, Senior Judge Dorothy W. Nelson (left) -- who wrote that "it is clear that Article 36(1)(b) does confer individual rights" -- but also with the opinion that Judge Diane Wood (below right) wrote for a unanimous Seventh Circuit panel last March in Jogi v. Voges, 480 F.3d 822. (The Jogi decision, about which we posted here, may be viewed free here; log-on required.)Circuit splits sometimes portend eventual review of an issue by the U.S. Supreme Court. In any event, there's no doubt that Court will grapple soon with aspects of the Consular Relations Convention. For this circuit split arises just weeks before consideration of the enforceability vel non of Avena, a 2004 International Court of Justice judgment that called for reconsideration of noncitizens who'd been convicted in the United States without having been told of the right of consular access. The high court, whose October Term 2007 begins Monday, will argument in that case, Medellín v. Texas, on October 10.

... 2007(today), celebrate the 7th annual European Day of Languages. The Council of Europe set aside the day to "alert the public to the importance of language learning," "increase awareness and appreciation of all languages," and "encourage lifelong language learning" -- goals that ought to extend beyond that 1 continent. Indeed, they do: counted among the 307 languages of the European Community ("20 of which have over 2000 speakers") are languages like "Japanese which for a majority of students may, in fact, be second rather than first languages." Join the festivities, perhaps by taking this Council quiz, or curling up with a copy of An Béal Bocht, Saga af bláum sumri, or the like.

Shiloh and Corinth: Sentinels of Stone examines the memorials to the brave deeds performed by soldiers of the North and South. Over ninety striking photographs and accompanying histories reveal the beauty of the Tennessee and Mississippi battlefields of Shiloh, Savannah, Iuka and Corinth. The narrative describes the deaths of Albert Sidney Johnston and W. H. L. Wallace, the first victories of Ulysses S. Grant's military career, the failures of Earl Van Dorn, the torments of William Rosecrans and Sterling Price. Shiloh and Corinth: Sentinels of Stone guides the reader through the landscapes where U.S. Grant began to understand that the Civil War would be long and would be bloody.

Timothy T. Isbell of Gulfport, Mississippi, is a photojournalist with the Sun Herald newspaper in Biloxi. He is a former photojournalist-in-residence at the University of Southern Mississippi and a Knight Foundation/National Endowment of the Arts recipient for his photographic study of the Vietnamese people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

This book is the third in a series; his other works are on Vicksburg and Gettysburg. This series is one that is always on the top of CWL's stack of frequently handled books. At anytime of the day, the reader can pick up one of Isbell's books and spend five minutes in awe of the battlefield memorials and their messages.

World leaders converge at the United Nations headquarters in New York today to give speeches marking the new session of the General Assembly. The speech that U.S. President George W. Bush (right) delivered this morning is available via hard copy and video here; among those due to speak later is French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Live webcast of all proceedings is here. (photo courtesy of United Nations)

'The discrepancy between the alleged number of victims per year and the number of cases they've been able to make is so huge that it's got to raise major questions. It suggests that this problem is being blown way out of proportion.'

Though law enforcement agents' lack of knowledge about or interest in the problem no doubt furthers that gap, in Weitzer's view, that can't account for all of it. In any event, the political capital to be won from embrace of the issue -- of critical concern to some in this administration's base -- itself suggests a need for careful examination of the scope of the problem and the proper means to address it.

The problem scarcely is limited to human trafficking. More than once the declaration of a transnational threat -- from drug trafficking, for instance, or money laundering, or terrorism -- has spurred massive spending campaigns. Campaigns have been undertaken with little identification of goals, little study of what might work to achieve those goals, and little consideration of how stepped-up law enforcement would impinge on civil liberties; in short, with little genuine cost-benefit analysis.

Inevitably, assessment of a criminal enterprise will contain "estimates in the fog." Petrus C. van Duyne, Organized Crime in Europe 113 (1996), quoted in Diane Marie Amann, Spotting Money Launderers: A Better Way to Fight Organized Crime?, 27 Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce 199, 229 (2000). That fact alone counsels care in crafting law enforcement mechanisms that will do the most harm to law-breakers with the least intrusion on law-abiders.

... 1992 (15 years ago today), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, ruling on a petition brought 3 years earlier, confirmed petitioners' allegation that on "February 22, 1983, approximately 74 people were assassinated by members of the Salvadoran security forces near Las Hojas, Sonsonate, El Salvador." It concluded that the government of El Salvador (flag at right) was responsible for the massacre, in violation of several articles of the American Convention on Human Rights. The Commission directed the state to investigate and bring to justice those responsible, and to put in place measures for prevention of such atrocities.... 1980, under orders from President Saddam Hussein, Iraqi armed forces bombed sites in Iran and set an oil export terminal in Iran on fire, the latest escalation of border skirmishes between the 2 countries. The Iran-Iraq War would not end for another 8 years; by that time, more than 400,000 had been killed and 750,000 wounded.

". . . a thousand blackened, bloated corpses with blood and gas protruding from every orifice and maggots hold high carnival . . . . " Surgeon Daniel Holt, 121 New York Volunteers, began writing letters home after the battle of South Mountain, Maryland on September 14th. Rare is the soldier who wrote the Mrs. of Rebels with brains blown out, eyes popped out, and arms lifted in the air.

John H. Nelson, author of As the Grain Falls Before the Reaper: The Federal Hospital Sites and Identified Federal Casualties at Antietam, a CD-Rom, has collected a series of striking remarks from surgeons, newspaper correspondents, U.S. Sanitary Commission and U.S. Christian Commission worker, civilians and rank-and-file soldiers and organized them into an article.

At the Smoketown Hospital, really shebangs for the wounded, "The medicines are on the grounds, and tables, boxes , etc. without order or regularity. There is want of attention to police the wards and camp. Direst and garbage are accumulated in large quantities. . ." describes Assistant Medical Director W. R. Mosely. He contrasts the Smoketown shebangs with the Locust Spring Hospital, that had 24 tents each with their own stone fireplaces and superior bedding, that is bedsteads described as sacks filled with straw and covered with sheets, quilts and blankets.

Among the many descriptions Nelson has presented, CWL fully appreciates the material on the Otto Farm, located on the west side of Burnside's Bridge, a discussion that may be representative of the blight upon the farming community. With damages in excess of $2,300, Otto received a settlement check for $893.85. Another farmer, Ephraim Getting whose farms held a portion of the Locust Spring hospital, claimed $1,238.45 in damages. He received no settlement.

For CWL, the article is a unfootnoted tease. CWL hopes that Nelson expands the article and North and South Magazine publishes it.

Dowry-related violence -- including burning young wives alive, beating them to death or otherwise killing or torturing them to extort their families into forking over more money, jewels or consumer goods as dowry – is on the rise in India, despite dowry’s having been banned in 1961. As rising income spells greater freedom and better living conditions for some, it spells hell for women like Devi, who managed to survive 4 years of regular pummeling and beating with “whatever they could lay their hands on” by her mother- and sister-in-law, while her father-in-law pinned back her arms. Whereas dowry, generally livestock or household furnishings, began as a practice to ensure that brides had a few creature comforts independently of their husband, families are now insisting on thousands of dollars, expensive jewelry and consumer goods, including luxury cars. The fact that many dowry deaths are even recorded as such is a major breakthrough; the shocking figures are therefore to be considered just a tip of the iceberg:corresponding to India’s economic boom of the 1990s, dowry deaths rose by 46% from 1995-2005, the last year for which figures are available. In that year alone, a woman died a dowry-related death every 77 minutes for a total of 6,787 such homicides (again, as reported; experts believe the true number to be much higher). Most offenders still go unpunished, though the central jail in New Delhi now has a wing for mothers-in-law accused of murdering or torturing their daughters-in-law for dowry. Still, the practice is so widespread that many men involved in law enforcement have benefited from dowry and are likely to dismiss the few charges that women dare to bring. For example, the Delhi conviction rate for dowry-related death was a mere 28% in 2003, a third that of the rate for sexual harassment. Meanwhile, in various South Asian countries including India and Afghanistan, women as young as 16 are burning themselves alive to escape violent, forced marriages, on the order of one per day in some cities. Pictured above is Mala Sen's Death by Fire, a book about the persistence of the ancient practices of sati (throwing wives on their husbands funeral pyres), dowry death and female infanticide in modern India. Various websites like this one address the issue of dowry death (or bride burning) and the link to Sen's book leads to a page with several related books. Getting the word out, first step toward getting it taken seriously.

... 1972(35 years ago today), Ferdinand Marcos, who 3 years earlier had become his country's 1st President to be elected to a 2d term, made a public announcement, carried on radio and television, of his decision to declare martial law in the Philippines. He would flee the country in 1986; his exile was followed a decade later by Hilao v. Estate of Marcos, litigation brought in the United States pursuant to the Alien Tort Statute.... 1869, Mary Mallon was born in Ireland. She immigrated to the United States at around age 15, and soon became a cook for wealthy families in Massachusetts and New York. In the early 1900s she was determined to be an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, and was believed to have spread the disease to dozens of people for whom she worked. Dubbed "Typhoid Mary," "the most dangerous woman in America," Mallon was quarantined by health officials; that's her in the 1st hospital bed at left. In a letter pleading for release, she wrote:

I have been in fact a peep show for everybody. Even the interns had to come to see me and ask about the facts already known to the whole wide world. The tuberculosis men would say 'There she is, the kidnapped woman.' Dr. Park has had me illustrated in Chicago. I wonder how the said Dr. William H. Park would like to be insulted and put in the Journal and call him or his wife Typhoid William Park.

Questions persist about the fairness of her treatment and the degree to which class or ethnic prejudice motivated officials in her case.

Alberto Fujimori's "in the hands of justice," proclaims today's special edition of the Lima daily La República. Peru's former President arrived on an overnight flight, having been transported from Chile less than a day after a 5-judge chamber of Chile's Corte Supremaruled that there is sufficient evidence of crime in 7 of the dozen events for which Peru had sought the Fujimori's extradition. In so doing, it overruled another Supreme Court judge's July ruling in favor of Fujimori, and credited instead the June recommendation in favor of extradition by Mónica Maldonado (left), the court's prosecutor. Among the cases now cleared for trial in Peru, the Santiago Times reported,

are two emblematic human rights abuse cases – the Barrios Altos and La Cantuta massacres – which took place in 1991 and 1992 respectively. Twenty-five people, including a small child and a professor, were murdered in the two massacres. The killings are believed to have been carried out by an infamous, government-backed death squad known as the Colina Group. Prosecutors contend that Fujimori had direct knowledge of and may have even ordered the Group’s anti-subversion operations.

"From an international law standpoint," Helena Marambio of Amnesty International Chile said, the court found Fujimori "to be responsible for the character of his time in office. Let’s hope they continue to process him in Peru."Meanwhile, Peru's Minister of Justice María Zavala (left) insisted at a press conference in Lima that the judges who will try the former President "must not be politicized."

If you wish to hold reproductions of Lincoln's elementary mathematics notebook, the Lincoln-Todd marriage license, Lincoln's letter to Sheilds outlining the terms of their forthcoming duel, Lincoln's patent application, the first piece of mail delivered by the Pony Express from St. Joseph, Missouri to Julesburg, Rocky Mountains, Mary Todd Lincoln's letter from NYC to her husband in which she asks for more cash, the telegram from Tammany Hall to Lincoln informing him of the Draft Riots and many more documents, then this splendid book is for you.

Not just a collection of paper documents, but also a fine biography with period photographs, maps, and illustrations on every other page, Lincoln: The Presidential Archives, is a wonderful book. In particular, rare photographs of Denton Offut's store where Lincoln clerked, the Lincoln and Berry store, and the Edwards' house in which the Abraham and Mary were wed are published.

The book's heavy and glossy paper and a strong binding allows the book to stay open at every page. Lincoln: The Presidential Archives is both an attractive coffee table book and a 'hands-on' biography. The narrative contents are well organized and the eight sturdy, opaque, full-page envelopes that hold the reproductions have a paper flap that allows for easy removal and return of the reproduction documents.

Lincoln: The Presidential Archives is worth every penny and will be a welcomed gift for any Lincoln enthusiast, Civil War buff, American history reader or social science teacher.

John Wilkes Booth Escape Route: History Map: Follow the Route Taken by the Assassin of President Abraham Lincoln As He Fled from Ford's Theatre On April 14, 1865, Until His Capture And Death 12 Days Later at the Garrett Farm in Virginia, Kieran McAuliffe, Thomas Publications, $4.95, 2002.

This three-fold, four page map is a necessary resource for anyone reading any book on the Lincoln assasination and Booth's flight, capture and death. CWL kept the map handy while reading Manhunt by Swanson.

CWL was well served by McAuliffe's work. On one side is the map are twenty-two black and white photographs of the key figures and buildings. Also this side shows the route of flight by Booth with Herold, the two federal pursuit routes, and the route which Booth's body was brought back to Washington, D.C. Each of the four routes have chronological annotations. Modern highways are also shown.

The reverse side of the map contains a brief description of Maryland during the war, and a longer narrative of the flight. Six photographs are on these two pages; featured are Booth's derringer and diary. A bibliography of eleven sources is included. The author and mapmaker, Kieran McAuliffe, credits the assistance of James O. Hall and Edward Steers. The design, layout and color of this publication is great! Easy to use and having lots of essential information, Kiernan McAuliffe's is an exceptional addition on any bookshelf or teacher's resource file.

To the shameful exclusion tales of Bolivian historian Waskar Ari and Swiss theologist Tariq Ramadan, we can now add that of musicologist Nalini Ghuman, a British citizen of British and South Asian descent. It is hard to imagine how Ms. Ghuman, an expert on Elgar, could pose any kind of threat to the security of the United States. Even Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials who refused her entry admitted that her exclusion was probably a mistake, and "suggested that perhaps a jilted lover or envious colleague might have written a poison pen letter about her to immigration authorities." Over a year later, Ms. Ghuman has been provided with no further explanation as to why she might be considered a threat, and has been separated from her fiance, her job at Mills College, and her home of 10 years. In her eloquent words, "I don't know why it's happened, what I'm accused of . . . There's no opportunity to defend myself. One is just completely powerless." My forthcoming article, A Global Approach to Secret Evidence: How Human Rights Law Can Reform Our Immigration System (soon to be posted on SSRN), details several cases of exclusion or removal of non-citizens, all of Arab, Muslim, or South Asian descent, on the basis of secret evidence. The sloppiness with which the DHS has pursued these cases has led to tragic results for individuals and serious embarassment for the US government, as the evidentiary basis for removal has often been seriously inaccurate and unreliable. As an evidence professor, these practices make my hair stand on end; as an American academic of South Asian descent, they hit home in a whole different way. In the article, I argue that human rights law presents a middle path that balances national security interests and individual rights, and should be used by DHS and DOJ in interpreting immigration statutes, drafting immigration regulations, and, perhaps most importantly, training immigration officials. Utopian, perhaps, but a profound shift in institutional culture seems the only way to prevent DHS from turning the lives of any more non-citizens into Kafka-esque nightmares.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) released today on their website the detention order for Nuon Chea, a.k.a. Brother Number Two -- Pol Pot's right-hand man and the ideologue of the Khmer Rouge regime. The order notes that Nuon Chea is being charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes, and justifies his detention to prevent witness tampering and destruction of evidence, to stop him from fleeing and to protect him from violence. It also catalogues Nuon Chea's denial of responsibility for the crimes charged and his desire to "enlighten the Kampuchean people and the whole world concerning the real enemies of Cambodia." The 81-year-old will likely face trial early next year. He has chosen Son Arun, a Cambodian defense lawyer specializing in terrorism cases, to represent him. More to come soon, and for more detailed information on the ECCC, check out http://www.cambodiatribunal.org/, a website dedicated to monitoring the tribunal, featuring expert commentaries from various Cambodia hands, including yours truly and "Eleanor Roosevelt," aka IntLawGrrl Beth Van Schaack. (Photo courtesy of the Documentation Center of Cambodia.)

The publisher's shill:Filled with historic details of the time, Fire Bell in the Night explores the explosive tension between North and South, black and white, that gripped Charleston, South Carolina, in the summer of 1850. Geoffrey S. Edwards's first novel tells the story of New York Tribune reporter John Sharp, sent to cover the capital trial of Darcy Calhoun, a farmer who stands accused of harboring a fugitive slave.

As the trial begins, John quickly realizes that not everything is as it appears in the genteel city of Charleston. A series of mysterious fires in white establishments brings the state militia, a curfew for the black population, and rising tension at the courthouse. To unravel the city's secrets, Sharp must enter Charleston's plantation society, where he is befriended by Tyler Breckenridge, owner of the Willowby plantation, and his beautiful sister Clio.

Set against the backdrop of a nation headed toward civil war, Fire Bell in the Night is a page-turning account of a trial and one young reporter's efforts to discover the truth.

CWL's take on this:It doesn't appear to be a bodice ripper. After reading a portion of the first chapter online, it's not storytelling in the tradition of Howard Bahr, Shelby Steele, Charles Frazier, Michael Shaara (CWL's favorites). But appears to be more a a John Jakes style of novel. I'll read a few more pages in the Borders' coffee shop and report back.

This series began with the observation of Peter Heigl in his German-English book Nürnberger Prozesse - Nuremberg Trials that among those who played a role at Nuremberg were "a few female defendants." IntLawGrrls've understandably been loathe to claim these women as our own. But they exist, as photos of "SS women" in yesterday's New York Times reminded. Those who stood trial for war crimes have an undeniable, if unfortunate, international prominence, and at times their story too must be told.Among the defendants convicted by the International Military Tribunal during the Doctors' Trial was Dr. Herta Oberheuser (right), a physician whose specialty was dermatology. For her part in nonconsensual medical experiments conducted on inmates at Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, Oberheuser received a sentence of 20 years, later halved. On release from prison 1952 she tried to open a medical practice but was forced to close it on account of former inmates' protests.Women defendants further included a number of Nazi camp guards, prosecuted in proceedings such as as:Buchenwald trialConducted by a U.S. military tribunal at the former concentration camp at Dachau. Among those convicted was Ilse Koch (left), wife of the Buchenwald Camp commander who was complicit in the atrocities committed under his command. Furor erupted in 1948, when her initial sentence to life in prison was cut to 4 years. "Koch was released in 1949, rearrested by German authorities, retried, and sentenced to life imprisonment. She committed suicide at Aichach prison in Bavaria in 1967."Bergen-Belsen trialA British military court adjudicated charges against 45 defendants, including: "the most notorious" Irma Grese (#9 at right) executed in 1945 along with Elizabeth Volkenrath and Juana Borman, plus at least 18 other women. Of these, 5 were acquitted; the rest received sentences ranging from 1 to 15 years.Auschwitz trialConducted by Polish authorities in Krakow. Defendants included Therese Brandl, 45 when she was executed in 1947; Maria Mandel (below), 36 when executed in 1948; Luise Danz, sentenced to life in prison, released in 1956, and in 1996 subjected to a German trial that was halted on account of her age; Hildegard Lächert, released in 1956, then convicted in a German courtroom in 1981; and Alice Orlowski, sentenced to life in prison but released in 1957.

The crimes of which these women were convicted ought to be unimaginable, and will remain, here at least, unprintable.

.... 1973, Carol C. Laise became the 1st woman Assistant Secretary in the U.S. State Department. Appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, she held the post until March 27, 1975, then served as the 1st woman Director General of the Foreign Service (1975-1977). Other government posts included the U.S. Civil Service Commission; State Department international relations officer in Indian and South Asian affairs (1948 to 1956); and U.S. Ambassador to Nepal (1966-1973). In 1991, she died at age 73, having survived her husband, diplomat Ellsworth Bunker.... 1999, a force of 1,190 soldiers, most from Australia or New Zealand, landed at the airport in the capital city of Dili in a U.N. effort "restore law and order" in East Timor, where militias "are thought to have killed thousands" in the couple of weeks since the electorate voted overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia, which had invaded in 1975 after Portugal ended its 450-year colonization of the tiny state (flag at left), which occupies half an island.

New on the international scene:One World Research, a firm that'll provide investigation and research on public interest and human rights issues. Principals are our colleagues John Sifton, who's just finished a gig as senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism for Human Rights Watch, and Jonathan Horowitz, an investigator and researcher who's worked with HRW, too, and also with U.N. agencies and New York University's Center for Human Rights & Global Justice. They offer to NGOs, law clinics, and lawyers working on public interest/human rights cases a gamut of services from conventional surveillance to database searches, from evidence preservation to witness location.Affiliated with the Los Angeles-based Public Interest Investigations, One World Research confirms the growth of a new and important actor in human rights protection. A complementary project that comes to mind is the Institute for International Criminal Investigations, a investigator-training organization founded a few years ago by our colleagues Raymond McGrath and Nancy Pemberton.The global gumshoe -- the P.I. who stands ready to traipse the planet in aid of victims of human rights violations -- deserves a heartfelt welcome.

It does not seem a great thing to be thankful for, that the gentlemen who confirm the laws which render women liable to taxation and penal servitude have declared us to be 'persons.' ... We are glad and proud to think that even in so conservative a body as the Legislative Council there is a majority of men who are guided by the principles of reason and justice, who desire to see their womenkind treated as reasonable beings, and who have triumphed over prejudice, narrow-mindedness and selfishness.

Two Lincoln scholars think:"Stephen Berry's House of Abraham is a couldn't-put-it-down good read." --Allen C. Guelzo, author of Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation

"Thoroughly researched, smoothly written . . . a poignant microcosm of the wrenching familial strains that tore the nation apart." --Michael Burlingame, author of The Inner World of Abraham Lincoln and Sadowski Professor of History Emeritus, Connecticut College

The Kirkus Review thinks:"Divided families make the stuff of drama. When the divided family is Abraham Lincoln's, its divisions are metaphors for the nation's own collapse. With a skilled and pleasing pen, Berry tells the tangled story of the sad and often painful element of Lincoln's life that deepened his understanding of the nation's travails. Lincoln was closer to his wife's large clan—she had 13 siblings—than to his own. Originally from Kentucky, the Todds had members in both the North and South and backed both the Union and the Confederacy. Four of them, including Lincoln, died as a result of the conflict. Some were honorable and others scoundrels, some were easygoing and others problematic. Berry, an assistant professor of history at the University of Georgia, calls many of them miserable, and their family a wreck. He manages to tell the story of each Todd with full sympathy yet critical distance, and adds another level of understanding to the president who would bind the nation's wounds. Finally, he rescues the Southern Todds from their obscurity. The result is a fast-paced, sobering story, never better told, of the pains of a clan and their significance for American history."

The publisher's pitch: "Whenever historians and trivia buffs get around to the “brother-against-brother” aspects of the Civil War, inevitably they cite the Lincolns and the Todds. It probably is not true that Abraham Lincoln once said of his wife’s Kentucky family that one “d” was good enough for God, but the Todds required two. However, it certainly is true that the Todd family, thanks to its lone connection to Lincoln, became an object case in how the sectional struggle tore families apart. The basic facts are well-enough known. Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd of Lexington, Kentucky. Hers was an old Southern slave-holding family, one of the aristocratic names of the Bluegrass, and not surprisingly when secession came, most of her family followed its ancient sympathies into the Confederacy. That would have been difficult enough for a Southern Kentucky woman married to a Kentucky man who sided with the North. But when that man was President of the United States, the problem magnified itself ten-fold. That President Lincoln had in-laws sympathetic to the Confederacy was embarrassing enough; the position of some of them made it all the worse. Mary’s half-sister Emilie was married to Ben Hardin Helm, a general in the Confederate army. Her brother George was a Confederate army surgeon. Another brother, David, served on the staff of Confederate general—and distant Todd relation—John C. Breckinridge, and his brother Alexander Todd was killed acting as an aide to Helm. Of Mary Lincoln’s thirteen full and half-siblings, four of her brothers served in the Confederate army, one brother-in-law carried his Southern sympathies to the point of committing treason, Mary’s sister Martha was actually a Confederate spy, and after Helm’s death in 1863, Emilie Helm came to stay as a guest at the White House in Washington. This is all the province of Stephen Berry’s excellent book House of Abraham: Lincoln & the Todds, A Family Divided by War. Besides being the first work to explore fully the trauma endured by this one Bluegrass family, House of Abraham also delves into his in-laws’ influence on Lincoln as President, on his rhetoric toward Southern civilians, and how his own relations forced Lincoln to come to grips with Confederate civilians as people, not just as enemies. Along the way we can see the sad portrait of a family with great strengths and great weaknesses, all heated to the boil in the cauldron of civil war."

Efforts to address greenhouse gas emissions through nuisance lawsuits suffered a blow last night when the Northern District of California granted defendants' motion to dismiss in California v. General Motors. In this action, California seeks damages against several major automakers on the grounds of state and federal public nuisance law.The District Court dismissed on the ground that the case raises non-justiciable political questions, with a particular focus on the third factor of Baker v. Carr: Can the court decide the case without making “an initial policy determination of a kind clearly for nonjudicial discretion”? In particular the opinion stated:

By themselves, the CAA and EPCA do not directly address the issue of global warming and carbon emission standards. However, when read in conjunction with the prevalence of international and national debate, and the resulting policy actions and inactions, the Court finds that injecting itself into the global warming thicket at this juncture would require an initial policy determination of the type reserved for political branches.

Moreover, the District Court found that the Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA (on which we've posted here, here, and here) only reinforces its conclusion:

Because the States have ‘surrendered’ to the federal government their right to engage in certain forms of regulations and therefore may have standing in certain circumstances to challenge those regulations, and because new automobile carbon dioxide emissions are such a regulation expressly left to the federal government, a resolution would thrust this Court beyond the bounds of justiciability.

Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with this dismissal or whether, this opinion gets overridden on appeal, it raises important questions about the regulation of anthropogenic climate change in several senses:1st, what role should courts play in the multiscalar, interbranch regulation of this problem? Will these justiciability concerns become more or less salient as the crisis gets worse and the domestic regulatory regime develops further?2d, how much of a difference should it make whether litigants seek damages or injunctive relief? The opinion indicated that “by seeking to impose damages for Defendant automakers’ lawful worldwide sale of automobiles, Plaintiff’s nuisance claims sufficiently implicated the political branches’ powers over interstate commerce and foreign policy, thereby raising compelling concerns that warn against the exercise of subject matter jurisdiction on this record.” If a suit focused on major emitters within a particular state, do damages become more or less viable under this reasoning? How should courts navigate the interconnections that globalization brings?3d, and perhaps most importantly, how should climate change be regulated? Is it a problem that can be addressed through a primary set of international and national regulations or do states and localities need to be included more directly? What options should a heavily impacted state like California have to address this problem if international and federal level efforts lag behind what it is willing to do (an issue raised by other recent and pending litigation)? This dismissal does not resolve these questions, but rather serves as another moment in a complex, ongoing conversation.